MadManMike

Yeah that's what made me buy it to be honest, the money I would have spent on mods can be spent on getting the underside welded and treated. It drives well, far more planted than Red was. Nice mk4, I was tempted to put my money down as a deposit on a mk4 but couldn't really justify the monthly costs at this stage. I think my next one will be a mk4 though, maybe in a couple of years. Are you planning to daily it or will it become a track toy?

Here's my latest mobile rust machine - a 2004 MX-5 mk2.5, SVT 1.8 6 speed. Fairly high mileage, quite rusty underneath, lots of stone chips / poor paint, but it does have MeisterR coilies, Rota wheels and a nice exhaust. I've changed the door speakers and fitted my stereo, still a few little bits to do but it's mostly good to go... just need to book a trackday now

Picked up another MX-5 today It needs a good clean inside and out, but it's pretty tidy for a mk2.5 - there is some rust to sort, but nowhere near as bad as most 2.5's. Ordered a stereo surround and some speakers for it just now, since it has the standard kit at the moment. MeisterR suspension, Rota Grid wheels, Cobalt exhaust, decent intake, turbo-ready clutch (Not that I'm planning to turbo it, but it's a good clutch). Proper unveiling once I've given it a good clean...

So, the Tiger went today. Advertised it yesterday with proper pics and the first viewer bought it, chuffed with that as I thought it might be a pain to sell. Looking at MX-5's again and wow, the market has gone mad since I left! I scrapped red in 2020 and there's cars in worse condition going for £1,500 now - wtf?! I thought the money from the Tiger would buy me a car, some wheels, an exhaust, coilovers and maybe a fresh set of rubber... apparently it'll get me a rusty car and that's it.

Haha, I hadn't considered that! I definitely don't want to look like a waiter and thankfully we found Freddie Hatchet tonight, a hire place that seemingly has every size imaginable and they're a reasonable price too, so the suit plan may be back on (She's not really a fan of the braces idea, thinks her dad is too old for that look and my larger buddies might be self conscious, which is fair). The venue is just outside Bristol, it was the only place we could find that was flexible in terms of catering and we didn't need a massive place. It's a nice place and very low cost because it's DIY, you source your own catering, waiting staff etc. We've hired a pizza truck, they make them in the back of a Landy and bring them in on platters and you help yourself to what you want, more our bag than a sit down meal.

Yeah I agree and I think it would have been jackets off straight after the ceremony and photos, so probably not really worth it anyway. A light shirt will be far more comfortable. I've got a real mix of sizes at mine, fairly short and skinny guys up to someone who's pretty much my height but quite a bit bigger. It also doesn't help that we have quite a specific colour scheme, so if it wasn't already hard to find the sizes, it's even harder in a specific colour. I suspect when my partner takes a look and realises I'm not exaggerating, the colour scheme might change a little Fair point about dehydration too, I can't imagine I'll be drinking much water on the day...

Well we were looking at buying, since you can hire for £125 or buy for about £175... makes sense to pay a bit extra and everyone has a suit to keep after the wedding. We've found a place that will make trousers to whatever size you like for about £90 a pair, so I think we're going to do that and then just white shirts and braces. It's in August, so in theory should be too hot for jackets anyway. I'll probably have a waistcoat just to look that slight bit more pimp than the others. I looked at doing mix & match as you suggested and the problem is stock levels - you find something nice and it's only in two sizes, so the shop either doesn't do a wide enough range or they do but they have no stock. Pro-tip: if you're getting married, only make friends with people the same size as you.

Not "angry" as such, but fook me, wedding suit shopping is literally impossible. You either need a party of big & tall, or a party of short & skinny. Abandoning the idea of suits now, since I've trawled three cities and every website. At least I think I have, feel free to rescue me.

We're not in a position to do that at the moment, but it's definitely something I'd like to do in the future. If by some miracle energy prices dip a bit, I'd probably look to stick more in. I also need to look at upping my pension contributions. Adult life eh?

Our latest mortgage offer is good, we'll be paying just £30 extra a month. The initial scare was £500-600 a month, then the offer came in at £80, now it's £30. Lucky, as Sheryl is on maternity still and I'm covering all the bills - £500-600 would have been impossible. And yeah, eye-watering - for every £1 we borrow, we pay back £2.09

I wish! Ours is nearly £1300 a month and with energy prices as they are, no chance of overpayments... at the moment anyway.

Yeah that's correct I think. Our mortgage advisor has done all the sums for us so it's made me a bit lazy... She offered us three different products, but a 2 year fixed is the safest option at the moment. Only about 90 years left until we finish paying for it

I'd be lying if I said I fully understood how it works, but our LTV is now 70%, which I gather is good... I guess if the value was the same, the monthly repayments would be higher because the rates have increased, so the jump in value has kept the repayments a bit lower - that's a guess though, someone more educated feel free to correct me!

I feel for anyone trying to get on the property ladder now, we did it in April 2021 and 100% wouldn't be able to now. We're renewing our mortgage this month / next and Barclays have changed their valuation from £269k (April 2021) to £335k (now). That's a 25% increase in house price, coupled with the increased mortgage rates - no chance we'd have enough deposit to buy this place. Rents at our old place went from about £925 to somewhere around £1200-1300 now, so we'd not be able to put anything away in our savings either. It looks like we're doing another 2 year fixed and the monthly payments are going up by £80, which isn't as bad as I expected (And much better than if we'd renewed in November or December) We got really lucky and bought at just the right time, surely the market will crash soon with far fewer first time buyers?

It's about to be returned, unused, as for some reason the hot water just started working properly again... I still suspect the microswitch is faulty, but all the time it's working I'll leave it as it is. Hah, no but I do have a mild concussion after twatting my head fixing the downstairs toilet earlier. Home ownership!

The manufacturer claims the microswitch and others parts aren't service items - only the motor is. How true that is, I don't know. Anyway, new ZA5 arrives today, pretty quick to swap over so fingers crossed it solves the problem...

Done some more Googles... seems like the microswitch may have failed in that actuator, since it's separate from the motor - the motor fires up and opens the valve, but the microswitch may not be working, hence the boiler doesn't fire up (Intermittently). Looks like I'm buying another ZA5 actuator and replacing the whole unit (Keeping the motor from the current one, since it's brand new...) Motor was £22, new actuator is £50, so if it fixes it that's still a decent saving over a plumber. Fingers crossed.

Any idea what it'll cost to get the chimney removed? Good news that it can be 'patched up' rather than fully replaced. I had the same thing with local roofers, that's why I went with a random Facebook handyman - I guess with all the bad weather lately, the roofers are flat out.

Weird, I didn't see a reply on here, sorry! The valve itself is fine, not sticking at all - since replacing the motor in the actuator, you can see it moving. For a while it seemed to work OK, but the last couple of days it's gone cold again. I've noticed that when the HW comes on, either through the timer or by manually turning it on, the boiler doesn't always fire up - Googling that brings up all sorts of weird, unrelated results, so I guess it's time to call a plumber.

Well I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting for this update: A good 14 hours of rain (Sorry Mark!) and our ceilings have stayed dry (Sorry Mark!). It seems my cheap-guy-off-Facebook gamble paid off (Sorry Mark!). Unfortunately though, the cat needs a trip to the vets and my hot water is playing up again. Also just got our quarterly electric bill, up from something like £130 to £500. With Sheryl off on maternity and now earning basically zero, that means I'm covering everything - broken roof, broken heating, broken cat and massively increased bills and food costs. The next five months are going to be credit card heavy and a real struggle.

Well, the blokes have gone and I owe them £350. Is the roof fixed? Who knows. Apparently they moved some tiles, cleaned the moss away because it was growing and creating gaps and they sorted the existing flashing by re-sealing it. Two leaks at the front and one at the back. We'll find out when it rains again...

Ooof. Major headache man I'm really hoping my guys don't turn out like this, I definitely have trust issues with tradesmen, for this reason. Sounds like a 0% credit card and new roof is the way to go, probably easier than continually paying out close to a grand to have it patched up - that's the route I'd take anyway.

They've come to look again this morning and it's changed to £300-350 now, since they can see more (It was dark last night). I think it is the flashing, it looks like a right mess up there. There's also three tiles that have moved and a drainpipe that could do with moving a bit. They've said the felt may need replacing but they don't know that until they start lifting tiles. I reckon it'll end up close to a grand, as it's all the original mid-90's stuff that probably is due to be replaced. What's the craic with your guys? Are they coming back to sort it?

I've been quoted £200 to replace a load of flashing, which is what I suspected the issue was. Bloke seems sound and at £200 I'm willing to risk it... Worst case, I'll be up there in a few days replacing it myself.

Oh man, the worst time to read this. I have a guy from FB coming to look at my roof as I read this... I have a strong feeling he will be the same kinda guy. Good luck getting yours sorted!